Cadence seeking state OK to buy out ProCure at Proton Center

WINFIELD – Less than three years since opening the region’s first proton therapy cancer treatment center, Cadence Health has asked state regulators for permission to buy out the company with which it had partnered to build and operate the treatment facility.

Late last month, Cadence – the parent company that operates both Central DuPage Hospital in Winfield and Delnor Hospital in Geneva – applied to the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board for permission to complete the $25 million buyout of the stake held by ProCure in the CDH Proton Center in Warrenville.

The New York-based ProCure helped CDH develop the Warrenville facility in 2010, and has helped operate the facility since. ProCure has developed and operates similar centers in Oklahoma, New Jersey and Washington state.

However, ProCure appears to have stumbled financially in recent months.

Michael Vivoda, Cadence’s president and CEO, told the Illinois Health Facilities board in a letter dated July 3 that ProCure is “currently in the process of a financial restructuring,” which has prompted the agreement between Cadence and ProCure.

“The proposed change of ownership, in light of this uncertainty, will [ensure] that the proton therapy center, and the services that are provided in that facility, will remain accessible to the patients and communities it serves without the potential of interruption,” Vivoda said in the letter.

When the facility opened in 2010, representatives of CDH, which later would merge with Delnor to form Cadence, trumpeted the potential of the proton center, saying the center would serve as a “destination” for many seeking cancer treatment.

They noted the therapy’s promise to more precisely treat certain kinds of cancers and tumors than traditional radiation therapy, resulting in less damage to surrounding healthy tissue.

The CDH Proton Center remains the only such proton therapy centers in Illinois.

According to a purchase agreement, dated June 26 and filed with the state board, Cadence also notes that it also will release ProCure and its affiliated entities from paying back $40 million CDH loaned to ProCure in 2009 to help finance construction of the proton center.